I'm Different or Not Exactly Duane Allman - Revision history

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Spider of Destiny at 20:19, 17 November 2020

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 '''What modifications have you had done to your D'Mini Strate?<br>
-The neck and body are stock, and it has Seymour Duncan pickups, and a built-in parametric equalizer with variable "Q" [resonance]; that's the one with the concentric knobs. It was custom-designed here at the [[Utility Muffin Research Kitchen]] [Zappa's studio/workshop]. There's a volume control and a silver plug that takes the place of another parametric that failed when I was out on the road. It has a three-way selector, and the toggle switch used to be for switching between the two parametrics. By having two parametrics, I was able to preset two different types of feedback boost. The circuit boards were worked on by [[Roadies and Technicians#Jay Sloatman|Midget Sloatman]] and [[Roadies and Technicians#Eddie Clothier|Eddie Clothier]]. [[Roadies and Technicians#David Robb|David Robb]]. who was the guitar tech on the last tour, also did some work on it.
+The neck and body are stock, and it has Seymour Duncan pickups, and a built-in parametric equalizer with variable "Q" [resonance]; that's the one with the concentric knobs. It was custom-designed here at the [[Utility Muffin Research Kitchen]] [Zappa's studio/workshop]. There's a volume control and a silver plug that takes the place of another parametric that failed when I was out on the road. It has a three-way selector, and the toggle switch used to be for switching between the two parametrics. By having two parametrics, I was able to preset two different types of feedback boost. The circuit boards were worked on by [[Roadies and Technicians#Arthur Sloatman|Midget Sloatman]] and [[Roadies and Technicians#Eddie Clothier|Eddie Clothier]]. [[Roadies and Technicians#David Robb|David Robb]]. who was the guitar tech on the last tour, also did some work on it.
 '''In generating your pieces, what comes first?<br>

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 '''What modifications have you had done to your D'Mini Strate?<br>
-The neck and body are stock, and it has Seymour Duncan pickups, and a built-in parametric equalizer with variable "Q" [resonance]; that's the one with the concentric knobs. It was custom-designed here at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen [Zappa's studio/workshop]. There's a volume control and a silver plug that takes the place of another parametric that failed when I was out on the road. It has a three-way selector, and the toggle switch used to be for switching between the two parametrics. By having two parametrics, I was able to preset two different types of feedback boost. The circuit boards were worked on by Midget Sloatman and Eddie Clothier. David Robb. who was the guitar tech on the last tour, also did some work on it.
+The neck and body are stock, and it has Seymour Duncan pickups, and a built-in parametric equalizer with variable "Q" [resonance]; that's the one with the concentric knobs. It was custom-designed here at the [[Utility Muffin Research Kitchen]] [Zappa's studio/workshop]. There's a volume control and a silver plug that takes the place of another parametric that failed when I was out on the road. It has a three-way selector, and the toggle switch used to be for switching between the two parametrics. By having two parametrics, I was able to preset two different types of feedback boost. The circuit boards were worked on by [[Roadies and Technicians#Jay Sloatman|Midget Sloatman]] and [[Roadies and Technicians#Eddie Clothier|Eddie Clothier]]. [[Roadies and Technicians#David Robb|David Robb]]. who was the guitar tech on the last tour, also did some work on it.
 '''In generating your pieces, what comes first?<br>

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 '''"Not Exactly Duane Allman"<br>
 [[Guitar Player Magazine]]: February, 1983<br>
-by [[Tom Mulhern]]<br>
+by [http://www.mulhern.com/about/index.htm Tom Mulhern]<br>
 <br>
 Without Frank Zappa, where would popular music be? Most likely, right where it is – or very close. That is to say, his approach to music – complex, unpredictable, and often cynical – doesn't quite fit in with the pre-programmed mainstream of pop music. Elements of all types of music, including contemporary classical, jazz, heavy metal, and practically every other recognizable form are employed with equal aplomb in Zappa's work. In the last 16 years, the 42-year-old guitaristl/composer/producer has completed 35 LPs – among them double albums – and there's a raft of material still awaiting mixdown and pressing. He has amused millions, and become legendary for the finely honed (some would say offensive) sense of humor in his songs. His fans are devout. Although other people simply don't like him, in many cases their opinions are formed solely upon the basis of what they've heard about him, rather than as a reaction to his music. (In a 1979 interview with ''Record Review Magazine'', he said, "Most of 'em don't know what I do, but they know my name.") On one occasion, the criticism went beyond mere displeasure: While performing in London in 1971, he was pushed from a stage by an irate member of the audience, and suffered a compound leg fracture and many bruises.<br>

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 Frank also incorporated elements of jazz into rock long before it was fashionable; listen, for example, to his 1968 [[Hot Rats]] LP. Throughout his career he has brought together well-known and soon-to-be-well-known high-caliber musicians such as guitarist [[Adrian Belew]], bassist [[Jack Bruce]], keyboardist [[George Duke]], drummer [[Aynsley Dunbar]], and violinist [[Jean-Luc Ponty]]. Frank has also made a few movies, including [[200 Motels]] and [[Baby Snakes]] (the soundtrack of the latter is due for release sometime this year), and is currently editing miles of videotape for future presentation.<br>
-What about his guitar playing? He's done a great deal, and provides most of the band's g-string solos while on tour. He's a stickler for the right tone, and thrives on a sound that laps against feedback. However, he doesn't view himself as a guitar hero. Almost paradoxically, then, he assembled the three-album [[Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]], a set of instrumentals that spotlights his fingerboard excursions. Transcriptions of many of his solos have been prepared for publication under the title [[The Frank Zappa Guitar Book]] [Hal Leonard]. Zappa produced these as a resuit of thousands of requests from guitarists who wanted huge doses of his playing. Besides providing these for his guitar-playing followers, each month he addresses questions on his compositional and instrumental approaches in his monthly Guitar Player column, "[[Absolutely Frank, Non-Foods|Non-Foods]]."<br>
+What about his guitar playing? He's done a great deal, and provides most of the band's g-string solos while on tour. He's a stickler for the right tone, and thrives on a sound that laps against feedback. However, he doesn't view himself as a guitar hero. Almost paradoxically, then, he assembled the three-album [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar]], a set of instrumentals that spotlights his fingerboard excursions. Transcriptions of many of his solos have been prepared for publication under the title [[The Frank Zappa Guitar Book]] [Hal Leonard]. Zappa produced these as a resuit of thousands of requests from guitarists who wanted huge doses of his playing. Besides providing these for his guitar-playing followers, each month he addresses questions on his compositional and instrumental approaches in his monthly Guitar Player column, "[[Absolutely Frank, Non-Foods|Non-Foods]]."<br>
 Since he was last interviewed in Guitar Player [Jan. '77], Frank has found less and less time to devote to the guitar, and only practices before touring. His love for the instrument remains undiminished, but the job of composing, managing his [[Barking Pumpkin Records]], recording and mixing albums, and otherwise making sure that his business is running smoothly, requires constant vigilance. Lawsuits brought by Zappa against Warner Bros. (his record distributor until 1977) over the unauthorized release of his [[Zappa In New York]], [[Sleep Dirt]], [[Studio Tan]], and [[Orchestral Favorites]], also tied up a great deal of his time. Some peripheral suits are still unresolved. Nevertheless, despite all of his other work, he still produces albums: the most recent one, [[The Man From Utopia]], is due early this year.<br>

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 '''How do they work?<br>
-They function very drastically. They start at 4k [4,000 cycles per second], and at that point when an "S" appears, they dump the whole top end. So. when it's triggered, it takes the whole top off the tape, and not just the "S." So it's very critical to tweak those things. The guy who cuts the lacquers [the earliest disc in the mastering process] for us is very careful about leaving it on when it's time to get rid of the S's, and turning it off right afterwards. It makes for a lot of manual work, and in order to do it, he works from a sheet of paper with timing numbers. So he'll, say, at one minute and 28 seconds turn on the high-frequency limiter to "4," look at the timer, and turn it on at the right time. He doesn't listen to the music, he does it by the numbers. Just turns it on and off. The easy way to do it is to turn on the high-frequency limiter and leave it on. There won't be any S's on the record, but there won't be any top end on it either. We fuss with that type of stuff. We have 30 or 40 refs for the new album [[The Man from Utopia]] and most people don't do that; they do one, and that's it.
+They function very drastically. They start at 4k [4,000 cycles per second], and at that point when an "S" appears, they dump the whole top end. So. when it's triggered, it takes the whole top off the tape, and not just the "S." So it's very critical to tweak those things. The guy who cuts the lacquers [the earliest disc in the mastering process] for us is very careful about leaving it on when it's time to get rid of the S's, and turning it off right afterwards. It makes for a lot of manual work, and in order to do it, he works from a sheet of paper with timing numbers. So he'll, say, at one minute and 28 seconds turn on the high-frequency limiter to "4," look at the timer, and turn it on at the right time. He doesn't listen to the music, he does it by the numbers. Just turns it on and off. The easy way to do it is to turn on the high-frequency limiter and leave it on. There won't be any S's on the record, but there won't be any top end on it either. We fuss with that type of stuff. We have 30 or 40 refs for the new album [[The Man From Utopia]] and most people don't do that; they do one, and that's it.
 '''Do you prefer to have your records done with half-speed mastering?<br>
-The only album that we ever did with half-speed mastering was [[Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III|Joe's Garage]]. It helps your top end, but it ruins the low end. Let's examine the frequency spectrum of what we're putting on the record. The new album has a lot of information around 30 cycles [Ed. Note: Low E on a bass guitar is 41.2 Hz], and there's a very full sounding bottom on some of these tunes. If you were to master that at half-speed, you'd need an equalizer that would have to be looking at 15 cycles. So you get a crisper, but a thinner-sounding record ifyou master at half-speed. On the Joe's Garage albums, we used half-speed mastering on all three of those discs, and I'm not totally delighted with the results.
+The only album that we ever did with half-speed mastering was [[Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III|Joe's Garage]]. It helps your top end, but it ruins the low end. Let's examine the frequency spectrum of what we're putting on the record. The new album has a lot of information around 30 cycles [Ed. Note: Low E on a bass guitar is 41.2 Hz], and there's a very full sounding bottom on some of these tunes. If you were to master that at half-speed, you'd need an equalizer that would have to be looking at 15 cycles. So you get a crisper, but a thinner-sounding record if you master at half-speed. On the Joe's Garage albums, we used half-speed mastering on all three of those discs, and I'm not totally delighted with the results.
 '''Do you have any examples?<br>
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 '''What attracted you to Steve Vai?<br>
-[[Steve Vai]] got the job because he sent a cassette and a transcription of "[[The Black Page]]" [[[Zappa In New York]]], and from hearing that, I could tell that he had a superior musical intelligence and very great guitar chops. And this showed me that there was a possibility to write things that were even harder for that instrument than what had already been used in the band. That's why he got the job.
+[[Steve Vai]] got the job because he sent a cassette and a transcription of "[[The Black Page]]" [[Zappa In New York]]], and from hearing that, I could tell that he had a superior musical intelligence and very great guitar chops. And this showed me that there was a possibility to write things that were even harder for that instrument than what had already been used in the band. That's why he got the job.
 '''What do you look for in a guitar?<br>

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 '''Of the many guitarists that you hired in recent years – [[Adrian Belew]], [[Warren Cuccurullo]], and [[Ray White]] – what did you like about each one that made you want them in your lineup?<br>
-[[Adrian Belew]], I thought, had potential to add something to the band as it was constituted at that time [1977], which was kind of a funny band. We blew out a lot of comedy stuff like "[[Punky's Whips]]" [only released on the first editions of [[Zappa In New York]]; otherwise unavailable]. That was the band that originated "[[Broken Hearts Are For Assholes]]" ][[Sheik Yerbouti]] ] and that kind of material. And Adrian just fit in with that, and so that's why he got the job. And [[Warren Cuccurullo]] was and still is a talented guitar player who had a desire to play standard repertoire songs he already knew from all the other albums. And he knew a lot of tunes; probably as many, if not more, than some of the other guys who were in the band at the time. And on the tour he did with us, we were doing a lot of the complicated songs off the records that people thought they would never hear on a stage. We were doing "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" ([[Tinsel Town Rebellion]]), "[[Inca Roads]]," and "[[Andy]]" (the latter two from [[One Size Fits All]]). We were doing a lot of hard repertoire. And he was good for that. Ray has been in the band twice. The first time, he felt a little bit out of place because he is an extremely religious person, and our band is not. And I think that there was some religious/emotional conflict the first time that he was in the band. He was always great: He had a good attitude about working and he did a good job. But I sensed that there was a certain amount of discomfort about him being in there vs. the type of material we were playing. So I let him go. And later on I said, well, why not try him again, because I had a band that I thought his personality would fit in with. So I called him up, he came down and tried out, and it clicked right away. So he's been with me for the past two or three years.
+[[Adrian Belew]], I thought, had potential to add something to the band as it was constituted at that time [1977], which was kind of a funny band. We blew out a lot of comedy stuff like "[[Punky's Whips]]" [only released on the first editions of [[Zappa In New York]]; otherwise unavailable]. That was the band that originated "[[Broken Hearts Are For Assholes]]" ][[Sheik Yerbouti]] ] and that kind of material. And Adrian just fit in with that, and so that's why he got the job. And [[Warren Cuccurullo]] was and still is a talented guitar player who had a desire to play standard repertoire songs he already knew from all the other albums. And he knew a lot of tunes; probably as many, if not more, than some of the other guys who were in the band at the time. And on the tour he did with us, we were doing a lot of the complicated songs off the records that people thought they would never hear on a stage. We were doing "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" ([[Tinseltown Rebellion|Tinsel Town Rebellion]]), "[[Inca Roads]]," and "[[Andy]]" (the latter two from [[One Size Fits All]]). We were doing a lot of hard repertoire. And he was good for that. Ray has been in the band twice. The first time, he felt a little bit out of place because he is an extremely religious person, and our band is not. And I think that there was some religious/emotional conflict the first time that he was in the band. He was always great: He had a good attitude about working and he did a good job. But I sensed that there was a certain amount of discomfort about him being in there vs. the type of material we were playing. So I let him go. And later on I said, well, why not try him again, because I had a band that I thought his personality would fit in with. So I called him up, he came down and tried out, and it clicked right away. So he's been with me for the past two or three years.
 '''He's got a really good blues style.<br>

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 '''Will the musicians from those albums be credited on the reissues?<br>
-Yeah. I don't know how familiar you are with the sound quality of those albums, but they're really disgusting. I've got some new refs of the same material made from the same masters, but done up to [[Barking Pumpkin]] standards, and they'll scare you to death. Because there's good music on those records; there's a lot lurking in there.
+Yeah. I don't know how familiar you are with the sound quality of those albums, but they're really disgusting. I've got some new refs of the same material made from the same masters, but done up to [[Barking Pumpkin Records|Barking Pumpkin]] standards, and they'll scare you to death. Because there's good music on those records; there's a lot lurking in there.
 '''How does somebody get to play guitar or bass for you?<br>

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 As a result of his low visibility in the mainstream of Top 40 pop, one might be inclined to think that he's gone nowhere and that he's had no substantial impact on music. Wrong on both counts. Zappa has been putting out records for longer than most other artists, and he has also been far more prolific than his contemporaries. A few of his LPs have even been certified for gold record status. Someone is buying his material. He has also been responsible for some unheralded ground-breaking. In 1966 he simuitaneously introduced the concept album and the double album with the [[The Mothers|Mothers of Invention]]'s debut LP, [[Freak Out!]] In 1968 he dared to parody the mighty [[The Beatles|Beatles]]' [[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]] with his [[We're Only In It For The Money]].<br>
-Early in his musical pursuits, Frank developed an avid interest in composers [[Edgar Varèse]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], and [[Anton Webern]], whose non-traditional uses of harmony, rhythm, and orchestration had a profound impact on his approach to writing. In 1968, [[Lumpy Gravy]] spotlighted his incorporation of various idioms; it featured 50 musicians (among them guitarists [[Tommy Tedesco]], [[Al Di Meola|Al DiMeola]], [[Tony Rizzi]], and [[Dennis Budimir]]), as well as a 16-piece string section. His orchestral pursuits have continued. As of this writing, the London Symphony is scheduled to perform several of his pieces on January 11 [1983] and record them shortly thereafter. Other symphonic works are scheduled for premieres: The Sinister Footwear, which is to be premiered by the Berkeley Symphony and the Oakland Ballet in 1984, as well as a specially written work called [[The Perfect Stranger]], which is to be conducted by renowned composer/conductor [[Pierre Boulez]] in the same year.<br>
+Early in his musical pursuits, Frank developed an avid interest in composers [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], and [[Anton Webern]], whose non-traditional uses of harmony, rhythm, and orchestration had a profound impact on his approach to writing. In 1968, [[Lumpy Gravy]] spotlighted his incorporation of various idioms; it featured 50 musicians (among them guitarists [[Tommy Tedesco]], [[Al Di Meola|Al DiMeola]], [[Tony Rizzi]], and [[Dennis Budimir]]), as well as a 16-piece string section. His orchestral pursuits have continued. As of this writing, the London Symphony is scheduled to perform several of his pieces on January 11 [1983] and record them shortly thereafter. Other symphonic works are scheduled for premieres: The Sinister Footwear, which is to be premiered by the Berkeley Symphony and the Oakland Ballet in 1984, as well as a specially written work called [[The Perfect Stranger]], which is to be conducted by renowned composer/conductor [[Pierre Boulez]] in the same year.<br>
 Frank also incorporated elements of jazz into rock long before it was fashionable; listen, for example, to his 1968 [[Hot Rats]] LP. Throughout his career he has brought together well-known and soon-to-be-well-known high-caliber musicians such as guitarist [[Adrian Belew]], bassist [[Jack Bruce]], keyboardist [[George Duke]], drummer [[Aynsley Dunbar]], and violinist [[Jean-Luc Ponty]]. Frank has also made a few movies, including [[200 Motels]] and [[Baby Snakes]] (the soundtrack of the latter is due for release sometime this year), and is currently editing miles of videotape for future presentation.<br>

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 '''Maybe they mistook you for Duane Allman.<br>
 Oh sure they did. People do all the time.<br>
 [[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]
 [[Category:1983]]